Are you a programmer with chronic headaches? If so please read

http://jacquesmattheij.com/Programmers+with+chronic+headaches+please+read

by ColinWright • 15 years ago

117 113 15 years ago

vivekjishtu2• 15 years ago

Even I was suffering from headaches for a few months and then I went to the optician and was prescribed to wear glasses.

Am still trying to get used to wearing them. And the first time I wore my glasses everything seemed so much clearer.

gst2• 15 years ago

I suggest to try out lenses. At the beginning it's a little bit difficult to put them in or to remove them, but (at least for me) they work much better than glasses.

If you are lucky and the lenses work well for you, you won't even notice that you have them inside (except for the fact that your vision is much better).

vivekjishtu2• 15 years ago

The only problem I see with lenses is the constant cleaning and the extra care that they require.

andrewaylett• 15 years ago

Contact lenses are good for certain issues with eyes, but not others -- at least around here, they're worn a lot more by short-sighted people than long-sighted people, and the article is definitely describing someone who's long-sighted.

The problem is that if you need to correct your vision for close-up work, a lens that corrects sufficiently may not be suitable for general purpose vision. In this case, you need to use glasses as you'll need to take them off when you get up from your computer, or you'll need bi- or vari-focals.

MichaelApproved• 15 years ago

TLDR Just scroll to the bottom:

"If you have headaches, especially chronic ones do yourself a favor and have your eyes checked, you might need glasses without realizing it."

biot2• 15 years ago

It's under 450 words which, for an average native English speaker, will take about a minute and a half to read without skimming to find the important bits. It's rather disappointing if something so short needs to be summarized.

pbhjpbhj2• 15 years ago

His summary is under 25 words; you can read a lot more such summaries in 1½ minutes.

This is why Google SERPs return a snippet and not the whole page of text for every page. Summarising is a very useful thing. What is it about saving time that disappoints you?

gst2• 15 years ago

There are lots of things that can result from bad eye sight.

I didn't get headache from my bad eyesight (around 1/2 dioptrin), but easily got completely tired during work (no matter how much I've sleeped during the night). Since I've got lenses this issue disappeared, no more tiredness at all during the day.

berntb• 15 years ago

If you are tired and your eyes are ok, you might want to check for allergies (at least mine didn't have any effects on throat/nose, so it might not be obvious). Or bacteria infection (teeth, etc).

shin_lao3• 15 years ago

That's spot on. Also known to cause headaches:

* Lack of sleep

* Lack of magnesium or iron

* Too much sugar/fat

* Caffeine withdrawal symptom (and the cure isn't more caffeine ;) )

* Bad position (especially in the neck)

* Flu, cold, etc.

ColinWright• 15 years ago

    > Flew

You mean "Flu", which is actually short for "influenza," and contrary to most people's belief is not simply a bad cold, but can be a life-threatening condition.

(Pet peeve - sorry - bad personal experience)

shin_lao3• 15 years ago

Yes exactly, fixed that. I got a flu two years ago, indeed it's more than a simple cold but there's nothing a young adult cannot handle.

derefr• 15 years ago

> Caffeine withdrawal symptom (and the cure isn't more caffeine ;) )

I don't know about that, actually. Caffeine is the active ingredient in (low-power, over-the-counter) migraine medication, because it has anti-inflammatory properties. People who have chronic headaches may be unintentionally self-medicating with caffeine; for them, the caffeine withdrawal period becomes concurrent with their regular headaches returning.

More anecdotally, when I don't drink caffeine (and I do go off it for months at a time), I get headaches on and off, about once per week or so. When I do drink caffeine, though, I literally never get headaches.

shin_lao3• 15 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_caffeine#With...

If I remember correctly, caffeine's purpose in migraine medication is to accelerate the delivery of the payload.

endtwist• 15 years ago

Is the pain localized? Because you might be getting low-grade migraines.

I used to regularly get stress-induced migraines (before I regularly drank anything caffeinated). Then I started drinking 2 cups of tea or coffee per day, which completely cleared up the issue.

Of course, if I go "off schedule," I get a headache now almost immediately.

rmassie• 15 years ago

I had headaches usually about three or so days per week. Sodas and tea were my sources of caffeine. One day I decided to quit. I had three days of headache and a week of jaw soreness (another symptom of withdrawal). Since then I have been mostly headache free now. I missed chai tea, but I found a decaf mix the other day so I'm set.

DanBC2• 15 years ago

Also, analgesics can cause "rebound headache" - you have a headache, you take pain relief for a few days, the headache stops, and you stop taking the pain killer. Then you get a rebound headache. This especially happens with ibuprofen.

(http://www.helpforpain.com/arch2000aug.htm)

That site says rebound headache are the most common cause of pain referral to doctors, which is a surprise to me. I would have thought back pain was.

hopeless2• 15 years ago

According to my doctor, ibuprofen does not not have this rebound property and is preferred over codeine-based drugs like Solpadine which definitely can cause rebound headaches.

But, in general, yes headache medications can actually cause headaches. Ask your pharmacist.

WalterBright• 15 years ago

I used to regularly get headaches on Sundays. I thought it was from sleeping in. I eventually figured out it was because I drank coffee at work, and not on weekends, and it was a weekly caffeine withdrawal effect.

sankara• 15 years ago

>> Bad position

Bad sitting posture, bad chairs and anything that could strain the spinal cord could result in serious issues. A friend was just short of a disk slip because of his sitting posture. He had a bad headache and after a diagnosis that took a month it turned out to be a problem with his spine.

lee• 15 years ago

Don't forget about dehydration. A big glass of water often cures many headaches.

VMG• 15 years ago

I'd also put

* lack of exercise

* smoking

near the top

> Too much sugar/fat

I googled it and found that the underlying reason seems to be high blood pressure, which can be caused by extremely high amounts of triglycerines. Unless you eat insane amounts of fat, I think it is easier to lower your blood pressure in other ways (exercising, quitting smoking, reducing sodium intake)

kreek• 15 years ago

+1 for the diet suggestions, but I'd add exercise in their too, it has a bonus side effect of increasing your stamina so you'll no longer need caffeine.

gorog• 15 years ago

* Lack of sunlight

Semiapies• 15 years ago

Add dental problems to that list. I had increasingly worse headaches for a few years due to a molar that was very, very slowly becoming impacted into the next tooth over.

Once it finally actually rose to the level of a toothache and I got it pulled, the change was enormous.

gommm• 15 years ago

I used to have very bad headaches when working and found out that it was due to a bad position of my neck. I've since changed my office chair, made sure that the screen is positioned so that I don't look down and the headaches have disappeared...

johnyzee• 15 years ago

> made sure that the screen is positioned so that I don't look down

Guys working on laptops should pay attention to this. Looking down (tilting the head forward, even slightly) means the muscles in the back of the neck now have to hold up the weight of your head (3 kilos?), instead of merely balancing it, as when the head is upright. This can cause serious neck tension.

ck2• 15 years ago

Here's the thing about headaches though - what triggers it for one person is not always the same for another.

The motivation to share advice is admirable but it's just as mistaken as similar "this is the path to my success, you should do it too because it should work for everyone".

lutorm3• 15 years ago

What you say is true, but it's better to try and see if it helps than not to.

Luyt• 15 years ago

With my left eye, I can't focus on objects closer than 12 inch.

With my right eye, I can't focus on objects further than 26 inch.

I have glasses to correct this, but without glasses I can comfortably use a computer at a 'sweet spot' distance of 18 inch ;-)

Any closer and my left eye image begins to become blurred. Lately I've done a lot of fine soldering work, and then it becomes really obvious. I think I need reading glasses, too.

narag• 15 years ago

My left eye is "lazy" (sorry, I don't know what's the equivalent term in English) that means that most of the work is done by the right one. If you have the same condition, it would explain the acute difference.

When it was diagnosed, they told me that it was too late to correct. For children "pirate patches" are used to blind the good eye and train the lazy one.

Silhouette• 15 years ago

I'm the same.

If everyone reading this discussion takes only one thing away from it, I hope it is to watch out for their kids in case they develop a bias towards one eye. You can do something about it, but only until they are about 7 years old. After that, the problem is to do with the development of the brain rather than of the eye, and today's medical science has no way to correct it.

BTW, there is definitely an English term "lazy eye", but I don't know whether it has the same meaning or refers to another specific condition.

fhars• 15 years ago

Ah, the "I don't need glasses, it is only that my arm is too short" effect. That's a well known ageing process. The lens of the eye is an elastic body that bounces back to a more spherical form if you focus on something in the near, but over the years the material becomes less and less elastic, so the nearest point you can focus on moves further and further away. (That is on reason why small children trying to show you something hold it right in front of your nose: for them it is the distance where they can see small things best.)

mturmon• 15 years ago

Thanks for that note about kids holding things close up. I had never thought that better flexibility of their lens might be the reason.

andrewljohnson• 15 years ago

Make your font bigger. Most people I see stare at tiny text.

roel_v2• 15 years ago

Eh, no - just get glasses. Even big letters are still blurry when your eyes start deteriorating. You can still turn up the font size, but first make sure that everything you see, you see it sharp.

roc• 15 years ago

It can be both. And often is.

malbs2• 15 years ago

I had the same problem - late afternoon headaches, tiredness. It was a colleague who took one look at how close I sat to the monitor to tell me to get my eyesight checked. Diagnosis: long-sighted in one eye, short-sighted in the other, which caused quite significant muscle strain while my eyes constantly fought eachother for focus, causing headaches and tiredness. Prescription goggles and the problems vanished.

Get your eyes checked, at best you get told you have 20/20 vision and you're mad, and to drink more coffee. At worst you're in line for glasses

roel_v2• 15 years ago

"Get your eyes checked, at best you get told you have 20/20 vision and you're mad, and to drink more coffee. At worst you're in line for glasses"

I'd turn that best/worst around. Glasses are easy to get, cheap, and work deterministically and measurably. If you have 20/20 vision and still have headaches, you probably have bigger problems than the relatively minor nuisance of wearing reading glasses.

malbs2• 15 years ago

I struggled when deciding how to place that best/worst haha, I think you're right :)

caw• 15 years ago

I didn't have late afternoon tiredness or headaches, but I noticed that sometimes after staring at a computer screen or TV for a long time my eyes would get entirely bloodshot. It would last about 2 days before it finally cleared. I would also get a pain, but it felt like it was my eyes rather than a headache.

It turns out my one eye has a slight astigmatism (I think that's the term) but it's just enough to need glasses for driving and TV watching. With my computer I've made adjustments so I'm not overly concentrating with my other eye. It had been about 5-7 years between my last eye exam because I thought I had 20/20 vision so sometime in between there I developed problems.

So even if you think you have 20/20 vision you still might want to go get an eye exam periodically.

ntmartin• 15 years ago

I've had similar symptoms, and finally got around to getting an eye test. Bottom line I need glasses too. I started getting very bad headaches in my late 20's, I'm early 30's now.

Glasses make a World of difference, esp as I am usually looking at more than one screen and switching between them. I went for a very light frame, like Lindberg for example as these were most comfortable.

bond• 15 years ago

In my case I get headaches due to lack of sleep. Normally when I get small(2 secs) but powerful bursts of pain on the back of my head with an interval of 6-20secs, I know it's time to sleep...

DanBC2• 15 years ago

Eye testing can pick up a bunch of stuff early, so regular eye tests (especially when you get older) are important.

Don't forget that in England your employer makes a contribution to the cost of eye-tests and glasses if you're a monitor user.

(http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/HealthAndSafetyAtWork...)

Plenty of pages that get linked to from HN are pretty bad for readability - awful contrast or weird font choices. User side CSS is nice, but it's a shame to have to fix so many sites.

easy_rider• 15 years ago

I have a -18,50 D in my right eye, and -18D in my left, with a small non-progressive cataract in both pupils (it's in the genes, mother has them also). Not to mention the spherical abberation and the PVD I've had in both eyes, due to a combination of kickboxing and my eyes being so bad, It triggered the condition at young age.

I can't look at white screens for too long, the floaters in front of my eyes will start to give me headaches because they distract me from my focus point. I've been getting chronic headaches for a year and a half now, but even though I'm pretty handicapped in my eyesight, here are some tips:

- Make sure you're not staring into bright daylight/ not sitting right next to a window, which will make it harder for you to focus. - Use as much black as possible, a black theme is a must for your editor! I hated Zend studio when they stopped being easily to configure in the theme department. When I found Apatana Studio I fell in love with the default dark themes.

- Make sure your monitors are up to date. Your resolution and sharpness of Fonts must be adequate. And if you feel yourself leaning over to read something on your screens. We have a problem... I'm sporting two 27" monitors right now at EYE HEIGHT. Which leads me to...

POSTURE POSTURE POSTURE POSTURE POSTURE. - Leaning forward is NOT good. Better, angle backwards a little bit if your chair allows it. If you start leaning forward, your back muscles will tense up, which will tense up your shoulders, which will tense up your neck...which will tense up your scalp, and there we go, chronic tension headache. Relax your shoulders, make sure they're not shrugged up when you're using your keyboard and mouse. Otherwise fix your chair/desk height.

- Ok so we can also get the migraines out a little bit, they are more often caused by eye strain, or poor circulation. Quit smoking, leave your work area for a short stroll from time to time. I get the sharp migraines a little bit less.

- Tension headaches might also result from a misconfiguration in the bedroom area. Wrong mattress, wrong cushions: headache.

jarek• 15 years ago

-18D is well in the legally blind territory, correct? I'm around -5D in my worse eye and I can't imagine something three times worse.

hopeless2• 15 years ago

I've always had headaches but some months are worse than others. I wear glasses for driving but generally not for every day wear (it's a psychological thing) and I've generally put it down to that.

After 3-4 days of a constant splitting headache which felt like I'd been hit with a cleaver, I noticed a lump at the back of my head/neck. This was finally enough to make me go to the doctor (obviously fearing brain cancer or some other deathly disease). The doctor diagnosed "Occipital Neuralgia" [1] which is basically the compression of one of the scalp nerves as it exits the spinal column. As I often end up slumped forward in my chair, head angled up, this was compressing those nerves and causing the pain. It had never occurred to me that the pain could have a physical cause. Since then, better posture control has meant very few headaches.

The lump it turns out is just a swollen glad, possibly from an unrelated minor infection or from the swollen nerve itself.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occipital_neuralgia

ErrantX• 15 years ago

This.

My osteopath calls it "programmers bump" :)

Pains in the back of the head, or down the side of the face it is almost certainly neck/back related. After suffering a couple of years with on/off head pain I finally figured this out & it literally took a couple of sessions to work the tightness out.

(I had a scare too because the trapped nerves in my neck caused lumps to appear all up and down the length of it :S not fun!)

So, yeh, I second the recommendation to get a medical professional to look at posture.

stephen789• 15 years ago

Is this just general "getting old" advice?

eru3• 15 years ago

Getting old while staring at a screen.

iaskwhy2• 15 years ago

Last week I bought a Macbook Air with 13" and I haven't been able to sit in front of it for that long, the resolution makes everything too tiny specially because I work on a lower resolution laptop the whole day and only use the MBA at night. I have no idea if I will get used to it or if I just have to return it. I've been thinking about how wrong the future is going to be to our eyes if we keep improving the resolution of screens when operating systems don't deal that well with it. (I use Windows 7 on the MBA and I can't just go for a smaller resolution because type gets blurred.)

pedrolll• 15 years ago

I have the same problem. Everything is very tiny. I just end up pinch zooming most web pages. I'm thinking of buying a desktop monitor and hooking it up with the MBA.

In all honesty I think I have to go see an optometrist also. It's long due. I'm getting these headaches staring at the MBA screen, never used to get them before.

duncans• 15 years ago

You can change the text scaling in Windows whilst keeping the screen resolution native: Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display - try setting it to Medium.

iaskwhy2• 15 years ago

I know about this but as a web developer/designer I would prefer not to mess with anything other than the resolution. I too am thinking the possibility of using an external screen and use the Macbook Air as a desktop because it's really fast. But I'm very sad about this outcome.

You know when I tried setting it to Medium or Large it almost looked like Metro!

Flow4• 15 years ago

I bought an 27" iMac a year ago and really wish Mac OS X had a "dpi slider" like the one in Windows 7.

Apple should be ashamed to not have this working by now.

click170• 15 years ago

Protip from personal experience: If your method of identifying someone at distance relies on recognizing the gait of a blurry outline of a person, you may need glasses.

extension• 15 years ago

Conversely, I strongly suspect that wearing my new myopia glasses in front of the computer was giving me headaches. They never told me about that.

crazydiamond2• 15 years ago

| "If you have headaches, especially chronic ones do yourself a favor and have your eyes checked, you might need glasses without realizing it."

Glasses are a good way of weakening the eyes even further. Eye exercises are a better way of keeping you vision in good shape. Keep your arm extended, focus on thumb, slowly bring it as close as possible. Extend again.

When reading a page on the computer, avoid scrolling line by line with a mouse as you read. Better for the eyes to use the space bar to do page scrolling.

If you find reading a book is out of focus, you might wait for 10 seconds or so, for the eyes to focus. Happens if you are not used to focusing on near objects.

scott_s• 15 years ago

Glasses are a good way of weakening the eyes even further. Eye exercises are a better way of keeping you vision in good shape.

Source?

alaithea• 15 years ago

Not sure about the scholarly literature on it, but my eye doctors (several different ones over the years) have almost always mentioned how it's better to slightly undercorrect the vision, so that the eyes still have to work a bit at focusing. They implied that to do otherwise could speed the degradation of your vision.

crazydiamond2• 15 years ago

I am from the East. We rely on common sense and what has _actually_ worked for us in our life, and what has worked for generations. I take studies done in the West (esp wrt health) with a pinch of salt. (Which reminds me of the fad about low-salt for which their are many authoratative studies and research but its still not true)

epo• 15 years ago

I'm sorry, would you care to remind us what your medical qualifications are?

tucosan• 15 years ago

My ophtalmologist said something among similar lines. It seems that using glasses with the same strength for reading/screenwork and normal activities (e.g. being outside) can have bad effects on your eyesight and actually make it worse over time, because you do not train your eyes enough. He recommended to me, that i should use two different glasses for when i need to work in front of the screen and for the rest of the day.

I used to have no glasses at all, and got severe headache attacks that would last for days. I then went to see a doctor and they found out that i was overaccomodating my eyes, and that i needed a pair of strong glasses, to relax the muscles of my eyes since they were constantly cramping trying to automatically make up for the loss in eyesight.

jodrellblank• 15 years ago

Another case of wanting proof by authority?

bryanlarsen• 15 years ago

Kicking the caffeine habit was what did it for me. Don't go cold turkey: I titrated slowly off the caffeine over the course of a month, and still had some withdrawal symptons (ie, headaches).

I still get headaches, but they're much less frequent, much less severe and it's usually much easier to track down the cause. (It's usually lack of sleep combined with too much screen time).

As a bonus, if I avoid computer & TV screens for the 2 hours before bed, I fall asleep within 30 seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

dekz• 15 years ago

Sometimes when I'm focused I forget to eat, not sure if this is common among others but the concept of hunger doesn't always strike me if im in the zone. Remembering to eat and to eat healthy reduced the amount of headaches greatly.

kolektiv• 15 years ago

What timing, I went through this process over the last two months. My new glasses will be ready on Thursday. I can read anything, even the smallest type without them. But after 8 hours, it hurts. Hopefully it won't soon.

Heed this advice - just be aware!

fiblye• 15 years ago

I was getting terrible headaches for a few months before I tried turning my screen brightness down around 20%. Daily headaches instantly became monthly headaches.

Getting new glasses might be the solution for some people, but for others, it could easily be something like having your screen brightness just a little too bright or dim.

marcovena• 15 years ago

not that I don't second what you say...but is this really popular on HN?

Flow4• 15 years ago

Every time I get more headaches than "normal" I go check my eyes.

For the last year I've had neck pain and terrible headaches many times a week and often the whole weekends.

Turns out it's not my eyes, it's how I sit, stand and walk. I've tried swimming(with glasses so I don't bend the neck further). Not much luck with swimming, gonna try going to the gym and exercise shoulders and my back.

The doctor applied some "body tape" to my back, shoulders and neck so I could feel in my skin if my posture was outside a normal posture. If you have headaches, try that.

Next step is to try to be aware of my posture when working, surfing and playing games. That's really hard, and I keep forgetting how I sit. :-( If you have any tips for me I'd be glad.

jodoherty• 15 years ago

Have you tried rowing? It exercises your whole body and helps reinforce good posture when you make an effort to maintain good form. I plan on buying my own indoor rowing machine next month.

Flow4• 15 years ago

I have tried it occasionally, it's nice exercise. Since you mentioned it and I've happened to read about it on reddit I think rowing might be a the exercise for me. I'm going to try it a few times and see how it feels. Thanks for the tip!

eru3• 15 years ago

Have you tried a standing desk, yet? (Don't know if it helps you. It was good for my back.)

Flow4• 15 years ago

I had a standing desk in my previous office and I used it sometimes, not very often, but it helped that I could vary the height even when I'm sitting.

A standing desk is ordered to my new office, I don't know when I'll get it though.

kellishaver• 15 years ago

As someone who deals with eye strain daily due to vision problems that can't be corrected, some days, it just wear me out and leave my physically exhausted. It's unbelievable how physically tiring it can be.

To combat this, I do a few things:

- Try to take frequent breaks, even if it's just closing my eyes for a couple of minutes

- Keep the room lighting at the right level - not too bright, not too dark

- Use larger fonts and good contrast - a black background on my text editor, where I spend the majority of my time and light grey, almost white, but not quite as stark, text seems to be the best balance.

- Try and get plenty of sleep - If I start the day tired, then my ability to focus on what I'm looking at and my visual stamina are both going to be shot by noon.

mechanical_fish• 15 years ago

Until I was 30 the word 'headache' didn't even exist for me. I never really understood what other people were going on about.

There are two phenomena that never cease to amaze me. One is this one: You go through life hearing about Problem X ("migraine headaches are really debilitating!") but you never quite know what the fuss is about. Then you get your first migraine headache and as you're sitting there in the dark feeling nauseous and miserable you suddenly think to yourself "oh, this is what my friends were talking about! Hey, they weren't kidding!"

Every time this happens it somehow takes me by surprise. I guess that, however much you try, you can't easily imagine the actual experience of pain. You have to be shown.

The other phenomenon is that you get used to your own pains, and then find yourself unreasonably surprised that other people don't intuitively understand them. I've worn glasses since I was eight years old, contacts for a couple of decades off and on, and I've been a professional laser scientist (i.e. "someone whose eyes are in chronic danger") so Jacques' story surprises me: You mean other people don't go to the ophthalmologist every year? Oh, right, they probably don't. I only know that intellectually; I don't really remember that from day to day until I read a story like this one.

Human communication, empathy, and imagination are astonishing abilities, but you do discover their limits.

FilterJoe• 15 years ago

Great comment. And it's even worse with less common ailments like Asthma or Chronic Fatigue Symptom. My wife has Asthma that is triggered by a number of different things including perfume and smoke. People often dismiss concerns she raises about perfume or smoke as her just being picky when it's really a health issue. But you can't see it and most people never experience it so that makes it harder to take seriously.

chugger• 15 years ago

1) eat a healthy breakfast

2) sleep at least 7-8 hours a day

3) exercise

smoyer• 15 years ago

I'm in the same boat and just got a set of progressive tri-focals. But I've found that there are other things that help.

1) I got a bigger monitor (for times I'm not using the laptop's screen.

2) I sit about four feet away from the monitor now ... that's classified as intermediate distance and doesn't require your tired eye-muscles to work nearly as hard to focus.

3) Eye exercises ... the rule-of-thumb is to look at something 20 feet (or more) away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.

Ergonomics can help too ... because the same guideline that helps you avoid neck strain will put the monitor in the sweet-spot of your eye-glasses (ignore this for contact wearers). Level vision should put your gaze one-third from the top of your monitor. Most people have their monitors too low!

I hope this helps someone!

lutorm3• 15 years ago

I have frequent headaches that were made a lot worse by a motorcycle accident a decade ago, and I've spent a lot of time experimenting with different things.

In my case, the biggest factor seems to be muscular, and doing trigger point massage has almost eliminated the problem. There are an amazing number of muscles that can cause some kind of headache (not just including neck muscles but also a bunch of jaw muscles reachable from the inside of your mouth...) It's now gotten to the point that depending on which type of headache (temple, top of head, stabbing in the eye, etc.) I get, I pretty much know which muscle to massage.

So, my obligatory reference for people who have chronic back pain or headaches: The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook ww.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment/dp/1572243759

powertower• 15 years ago

My headache solutions:

1. Don't forget to breath. When I'm coding sometime I'll concentrate on the problem so much that my breathing slows down and becomes extremely shallow.

2. Don't let the code/problem take you away. Practice self-awareness.

This will prevent the tension for building up.

mcantor2• 15 years ago

Also, everyone should install F.lux

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

This is another migraine-stopper.

rdouble2• 15 years ago

I found that f.lux actually makes my eyes hurt when used with LED backlit screens.

mcantor2• 15 years ago

Do you use the "gradual shift" setting? I've noticed that a lot of people don't realize it's there, and they use the "sudden drastic change" setting, which is very jarring. Also, make sure it has the correct coordinates/zip code for your location!

typicalrunt• 15 years ago

The simple thing he didn't mention as the cause of his headaches -- other than alluding to it -- is eyestrain. As programmers we are consistently straining our eyes. I'm always in the doghouse with my optometrist because I am always breaking her rules. She understands programmers and what they do to their bodies (fingers, wrists, eyes, posture), but obviously her bias is the eyes so she has a few rules that I should live by:

- don't strain the eyes reading small text. Smartphones are especially bad at this.

- don't always look at the same distance. It strains the muscles. We were meant to look at short and far distances, but monitors are always 2-3 ft from our face.

- Take A LOT of eye breaks. Every 10-15 minutes just look somewhere else. That's all.

- Blink. When people read screens, they blink less. If you don't blink, your eyes don't lubricate themselevs and you can develop sores under your eyelids (especially so with contact lenses).

- Get more sleep.

- Wash around your eyes every night. This is good advice for women as well as men. If you mistreat your eyes, you can get protein build-up around the eyelids and follicles. Make sure you gently clean all of it away with a warm compress.

Basically, treat your eyes like precious little jewels. Pamper them and they'll last a long time.

nazar2• 15 years ago

My laptops resolution is 1920x1080 which makes HN text look almost microscopical, and I spend reading HN 1/3 of my day. I think from this day on I will ctrl++ :) Thanks for advice!

nazar2• 15 years ago

For me it's usually intensive focus on something, be it complicated problem or just routine work. I don't feel headache while being within the activity, but after I stop and try to take some rest, my head nearly exploding, and the only way out is vomiting.

pasbesoin2• 15 years ago

I'm at the point of needing to replace a pair of glasses. Has anyone had useful experience with online purchases of glasses (in the U.S.)? There are a number of options; perhaps I need to find some recent issues of Consumer Reports, if they've included online retailers in their reviews.

I'm fussy about comfort and appearance, but the prices that are charged especially for the frames nonetheless seem ridiculous.

moioci• 15 years ago

If you're a Costco member, they have a reasonable selection of frames at very reasonable prices. I'm considering getting a backup pair there.

nkurz• 15 years ago

Don't think, just do it. I've had much better experiences online than I have with local and chain eyeglass shops. The prices charged by most shops are an insult. Do your part to disrupt this monopoly, while saving yourself a lot of money.

If you're cheap (I am) I'd recommend Goggles4u. If you search for coupons, and you can get a basic CR39 backup pair for $10 ($5 if you're willing to 'Like' them on Facebook first), a decent polycarbonate AR pair for $25, and a great pair for $40. Interface is awful, communication is awkward, shipping is slow, but prices are great and product quality is generally high.

If you want less hassle, try EyeGlassDirect. They are US based, respond to email, and are a fraction of the cost of your local shop. You can get two pairs of AR polycarbonate for about $100, no coupon searching necessary.

Both of these places will put new lenses in your existing frames for about the same price. I've even gone so far as to order designer frames from Ebay, and have them shipped directly to Eyeglassdirect to have lenses put in.

If you want more info, www.eyeglassretailerreviews.com and glassyeyes.blogspot.com are good starting points. But don't get bogged down. Skip the research and do it!

ps. As another poster points out, Costco isn't bad, but once you start buying online even their prices will seem extreme. But they (and Walmart Optical) are good places to get a prescription and exam.

pasbesoin2• 15 years ago

Thank you for the informative response. Currently, I have a rather nice (and pricey, but I received superb follow-up service from the local, non-chain shop over a period of several years) Italian frame with polycarbonate lenses. One thing that has slowed their replacement is that this model is no longer offered, as of some years ago. But both the frame and the lenses are reaching an unavoidable end of life.

The shop has changed hands, it appears, and also, extrapolating prices forward to today, they would simply be more than I'd be comfortable paying right now. But I'd still pay relatively more for something similar -- just without the final round or two of high markup.

This pair has lasted well over a decade. So I don't view the past expenditure as a waste -- both for the resulting durability and for the consultation that led me to this model. But, again extrapolating in my imagination, looking at upwards of a grand for a pair of glasses just seems extreme.

I'll have a thorough look at your recommendations. Thanks again.

cagey• 15 years ago

I just got progressive lens glasses for the first time a few months ago. And made the mistake of using them while working on my PC. Result: BAD recurring headaches for the first time in my life. I switched back to my old single-vision glasses til now, but all the providers I deal with are pushing "computer progressives" as the default solution; they look at me like I'm crazy when I ask for a single-vision prescription for use with the computer.

Any experiences with "computer progressives" out there in HN-land?

alexwolfe• 15 years ago

Ha, knew you were gonna say glasses, same problem. The eyes slowly get weaker, glasses helped.

liquidcool• 15 years ago

Here's a counter point (sort of). At some point I began to suffer from eye strain - they were really hurting. I went to an optometrist and got a checkup, explained the symptoms. Since I was staring at a computer all day (and all evening - this was during my special time with WOW) she prescribed computer glasses.

Turns out, I didn't need them (and still don't). What happened was that the refresh rate on my CRT monitor was reset to 60Hz (probably due to a driver update). Once I returned it to the highest setting, my eye strain/pain went away. Of course, with LCDs it's not really a problem anymore, but keep this in mind if you're still on a CRT.

pipedream• 15 years ago

I never understood how glasses are supposed to help. Glasses only help you see better while wearing them, but don't actually help you see better after you take them off, right?

I have mild hypermetropia, but it hasn't bothered me so far, so I'm not wearing glasses.

Are you a programmer with chronic headaches? If so please read

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